In woodworking in general, it is often desirable to provide for ripping a substantial number of pieces of wood, and of varying thicknesses, the ripping operation usually being accomplished by a circular saw, which in turn has a tendency to kickback so, to speak, the material being ripped as the ripping operation is performed.
Additionally, it is usually the case that the ripping operation is performed with a rip saw arranged with a fence, against which the material is desirably held, and to that end some means are preferably provided to maintain such positioning of the material being ripped during that operation.
Also under some circumstances where the kickback tendency is of no material effect, the ripping operation may be performed without the kickback elements being in place and thus perhaps at some greater speed and in other cases with somewhat more ease than otherwise is the case.
There are several approaches to the concept of anti-kickback ripping arrangements and a number of devices on the market, which provide for that situation, but most of them are considerably more complicated than is necessary under most circumstances.